Hundreds of gallons of home heating oil were mistakenly pumped into the basement of a house on Linwood Street in Medford, Massachusetts on Monday. 

"The oil delivery driver pulled up to the wrong address, put 385 gallons of oil into a basement with no oil tank," said Medford Deputy Fire Chief Nicholas Davis. The incident triggered a hazardous material response. 

Homeowner Dang Nguyen couldn't believe it. He said both his wife and brother-in-law were home at the time. They didn't know it was happening until they began to smell the fumes. 

"He looked outside and see the truck in the front and he pumped oil in. And he come in and he talked to him, he said nobody tell you to come in and pump the oil here, why are you pumping," Nguyen said. "And he showed him the basement with all the oil."

Delivered to wrong house in wrong city

The oil company is Fawcett Energy. Not only was the truck at the wrong house, it was in the wrong city. The delivery driver was supposed to go to 48 Linwood in Malden, Massachusetts but instead he went to 48 Linwood in Medford. 

"It's spread out all over the floor of the basement. So now we are worried about protecting the cleanouts, and making sure it doesn't get down into the ground. We used speedy dry and booms and tried to isolate and do what we could until the DEP came and got a chance to take a look at it," Davis said. 

Oil tank removed 5 years ago

Ngugyen's house does have an oil fill connection out of his home where the hose connects, but he said he removed his oil tank five years ago and now heats his home with gas. 

Chief Davis said an oil delivery can range anywhere between 150 and 250 gallons. 

"Normally when you are filling up an oil tank, once it starts to get full you hear the whistle and that keys the driver to shut down the oil. But there is no whistle because there is no tank. They should be capped and filled, shouldn't remain and it was," Davis said. 

Nguyen was supposed to be celebrating Thanksgiving with 20 people at his home Thursday. 

"I am going to call tomorrow and cancel. You never know people make mistake and put in wrong address. It supposed to be Malden not Medford," he said.

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection is investigating the incident along with the building inspector. The six people who have been displaced are being assisted by the Red Cross. 

What happens next

Kevin Hoag, president of CommTank, which specializes in tank installations, removals and maintenance, said there's no easy quick fix. 

"A lot of homes, over the years in the city, they crack. The floors move and there's cracks," Hoag said. "Once there's a crack it gets under there, people don't understand it just doesn't go away." 

After evacuating the house, Hoag said crews immediately would have absorbed and pumped out what they could. Next, the house should be ventilated, holes drilled and samples collected during a site evaluation.

"It's repairable," Hoag said. "They'll get through it and put it behind them and worst case there is a couple months ahead, some extra headaches." 

Hoag explained the site evaluation will reveal exactly where the oil went beneath the property, and then there are involved steps to manually extract it. Major repairs like that could cost more than $200,000.